[From J. Marvin Hunter’s Frontier Times Magazine, January, 1930]

Smoke signals of war, couriers of disaster, galloping their horses to death, while over the rolling horizon came the pursuing Indians, yelping for a scalp. Such and many more, are the tales told by Mrs. W. A. Thompson, Hays county pioneer.

She is the daughter of Monroe Hardeman, one of the colorful figures that fought for the independence of Texas with Sam Houston in the battle of San Jacinto and Gonzales. Her grandfather, Thomas J. Hardeman, arrived in Texas in 1833 to become one of the hardy settlers.

During several Indians uprisings, Mrs. Thompson's father was a major of the Texas militia, engaging in several battles with the roaming redskins. Placedo, chief of the Tonkawas, once saved the life of Major Hardeman while savage warriors fought the militiamen. The major also sat as a member of the tribunal that decided the fate of General Santa Anna after his capture.

One of the stories of Indian depredations told by Mrs. Thompson is about the saving of a woman's life because her captors' arrow was held by a wooden stave in her homemade corset.

A woman by the name of Mrs. Fretwell, her sister and a negro woman were taken captive by marauding Indians at Indianola, Texas, their home burned, and another negro woman with five children killed.

Tieing their captives to horses, the Indians trekked on to Plum creek, near where San Marcos now lies. A wedding feast was in progress, but the Indians failed to take the celebrators by surprise. A courier arrived ahead of the Indians upon a horse that fell dead when it slid to a stop, Mrs. Thompson relates.

Major Hardeman, riding a prancing, high-spirited horse, rode out with the pioneers to do battle with the war-makers while the women hurried about moulding leaden pallets for guns and fixing lunches for their men.

In a ravine at Plum creek, the warriors met the white men with twanging bows, and death-belching guns, war whoops and taunting yells.

The settlers fought from a ravine, but the major's horse, frightened by the tumult, the screams of the wounded, refused to enter the ravine but jumped continually over it. Chief Placedo, watching his chance and daring the whizzing arrows and lead, jumped from the ravine, grasped the horse's bridle and pulled the stallion down the declivity to safety.

General Burleson later gave Chief Placedo a medal which the Indian wore pinned over his heart, and Major Hardeman presented him with a horse, Mrs. Thompson related. Being thrown by his horse while returning to his reservation near Manchaca, the Indian lost his medal. He was terribly dejected, and would not leave until it was found by several searchers. He was known as one of the friendliest Indians in this section.